Mar

21

zigGis 1.2 released

Filed Under GIS, PostGIS, ArcGis Desktop, ZigGis | 7 Comments

zigGIS 1.2, the Open Source ArcGis Desktop's connector to PostGIS, has just been released and you can download it here.

ArcMap with PostGis data using zigGis

This is a major release, as far it implements new important features like selections and rendering. At this time editing is still not supported (so it is still a read only connector).
Also ArcMap documents persistence is now fully supported, meaning that you can save your mxd document with your PostGIS layer in them, and then open them again without problems.
zigGis should correctly work with ArcGis 9.0 (sp3), 9.1 and 9.2. Before installing it don't forget to install .NET support for ArcGis.

the ArcMap toc with PostGis data using zigGis

Here is a list of supported and unsupported features in ArcMap with zigGis 1.2:

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Feb

21

PostGis WorkspaceFactory

Filed Under GIS, PostGIS, ArcObjects, ArcGis Desktop, devs, .NET, COM, ZigGis | 2 Comments

In my previous post I have showed you how to install and using zigGIS for adding PostGIS data into ArcMap.
From the ArcMap user interface you just need to press the zigGIS button and an "Add PostGIS data" dialog will be shown to you. From there you can set a zig File path, where PostGIS connections settings are stored, and then a PostGIS layers list will be shown and you can check which layer(s) add to the map.

Add PostGis data

In this post I will show how to programmatically use zigGIS and ArcObjects to add PostGIS data into ArcMap.
zigGIS is a Microsoft .NET 2.0 library that can be used from .NET clients and also from COM clients.
You could use it in your ArcObjects .NET applications/library to manage PostGIS data, in any .NET language like VB .NET and C#.
As zigGIS it is obviously exposed to COM (ArcObjects are in COM), you could also use it in your COM applications/library, for example in applications developed with Visual Basic 6 and ArcMap's VBA (Visual Basic for Application).
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Feb

14

Installing zigGIS 1.1 for connecting ArcMap to PostGIS layers

Filed Under GIS, PostGIS, ArcObjects, ArcGis Desktop, devs, .NET, COM, ZigGis | 1 Comment

zigGIS is an Open Source PostGIS connector for ArcGIS Desktop, that enables ArcMap to add PostGIS layers in the map.
Differently from other kinds of connectors, like for example PGArc, the very nice feature of zigGIS is the direct-read of PostGIS data, without the needs of proxy shapefiles. This meaning that the PostGIS features are directly readed and displayed in ArcMap from the PostGIS data source without a previous conversion to a shapefile or personal GDB.

zigGIS interface

This is a very interesting project, but still in a very early phase, in fact there are still important issues that are planned to be solved in the next future, like:
- edit features (edit PostGIS layer from ArcMap is still not implemented, and it is read-only)
- symbology not working (only simple symbol rendering is currently working)
- selections are not supported
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Jan

19

Full OSS solution vs OSS/commercial solution mix

Filed Under GIS, PostGIS, ArcObjects, devs, .NET, Java, ZigGis, CMS | 5 Comments

I wanted to leave a comment in this Bill Dollin's post, but after that it came out to my mind to leave a trackback to it, and going with a my own post on this subject as far as I have several things to discuss about.

In the OSS jungle, it looks there are in the last times more and more solutions and projects based on commercial closed-code software. For example zigGIS, the Open Source ArcGIS connector for PostGIS, in which I am involved, is by itself an OS project tied to proprietary frameworks (Microsoft and Esri). This is many times not so good, as I cannot dig, for example, in Esri ArcObjects core code for understanding why a particular issue is coming out.
At my office we are in the process of taking an important strategic decision.
We are going to replace our actual commercial closed-source CMS (Content Managment System) - that we were using for some portals we manage for several years - for an Open Source solution.
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